When Toscanini encouraged Nino Rota to study at the Curtis Institute, where guidance by Fritz Reiner and a friendship with Aaron Copland awaited the precocious composer, it was already clear that an outstanding career lay ahead of him, even if its exact course wasn't yet determined. It turned out to be one that straddled classical music and film music, the former informing the latter. This is especially evident when listening to the delightful waltz from Rota's score for the film War and Peace, or the darkly humorous snippets from that for the aptly titled Orchestra Rehearsal. And while Castel del Monte, essentially a horn concertino inspired by King Frederick II’s famous medieval castle in southern Italy, isn’t technically film music, it sounds very much like music for a fantasy film of Rota’s imagining.